A mother who wanted nothing more than to be reunited with her
estranged son on Mother's Day was brutally beaten on the head by the
man, who afterwards took his own life yesterday.
Batia Ramsumair, 70, collapsed and died on the doorsteps of her son's house at Sukhan Trace, Barrackpore.
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| Batia Ramsumair |
Her son, Basdeo Ragoobar, who wanted nothing to do with his
mother and siblings, drank a poisonous substance and died in a track at
the back of his house.
Relatives said the mother and son severed ties almost 18 years ago when he beat and chased her from the family's home.
Ramsumair moved in with an older son, Sookdeo, at Jones Trace, Barrackpore.
Police said there was an ongoing dispute between the mother and son.
Several reports of domestic violence were made against 47-year-old Ragoobar.
He was recently imprisoned for breaching a protection order, police said.
Dass Ragoobar, another son, said: "But she kept trying to talk to
him. That was her son and she wanted him to come back into her life.
She loved him so much. And every time she tried to talk to him he would
want to beat her. Yesterday I was talking to her and she tell me she
going to talk to (Basdeo) this morning because it is Mother's Day and he
will have to talk to her. I beg her to stay away from him because he
was a violent person. He always wanted to beat people. But she said no,
it is Mother's Day and she going by her son."
Ramsumair took a taxi to her son's house around 9 a.m. Neighbours
said they heard loud voices and then Ramsumair was seen lying in the
front yard.
Her face was covered in blood.
Police said the elderly woman was struck on the head with a blunt object.
A murti of the Hindu god Hanuman was on the ground, near Ramsumair's body.
But officers were unable to confirm if the murti was used as the murder weapon.
Ragoobar ran through a track at the back of his unfinished house after the attack.
Police responded to the report and found Ragoobar lying face down
in the bushes, dressed in a pair of short pants. A bottle containing a
brown liquid was near his body.
A relative and six-year-old child were at Ragoobar's home when the incident happened.
Police were last evening searching for the woman and child who left after Ramsumair was killed.
Ramsumair was a mother of five.
"My father was sick, so he couldn't do much. My mother
single-handedly raised five children. She sacrificed and make sure her
children always had something to eat. She used her own hands and build
the house that Basdeo was living in and he put her out. She loved all of
her children and because of that love she was killed," Dass Ragoobar
said.
Ramsumair's four children and grandchildren had planned a surprise luncheon to celebrate Mother's Day yesterday.
Her son-in-law, Ravi Ramdass, said they had planned to cook and spend the day with the elderly woman.
"Yesterday we took her out to a restaurant and for a drive. And
today we were in the grocery buying things to make lunch for her when we
got the call," he said.
His wife, Annie, was inconsolable.
"My mother wanted to spend Mother's Day with him (Basdeo). Look
she get to spend Mother's Day with him, but not with us," she cried.
Relatives described Ramsumair as a loving mother, who always wanted to see her children happy.
Her 15-year-old grandson, Krishna Rajkumar, said, "Nani just
wanted to speak with her son on Mother's Day. She loved him so much. I
can never accept something like this."
The bodies of mother and son lay side by side as they were taken to the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
Southern Homicide Division officers are continuing investigations.
Source:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/SON__KILLS__MOM___SELF_______________-151326945.html
SON KILLS MOM OVER LAND
By STACY MOORE Monday, May 14 2012
LIKE all mothers,
Barrackpore pensioner Batia Ramsumair, 70, never stopped loving her son
though she endured years of abuse from him during which he eventually
drove her out of her own house.
Yesterday on
the occasion of Mother’s Day, Batia believed her son would have
softened his heart and reached out to her, but the mother of five
suffered a deadly blow of fate. The son, Basdeo Ragoobar, 47, struck
his elderly mother on the head, killing her instantly in his yard at
Sukhan Trace, Rochard Douglas Road, Barrackpore. After the woman fell,
bleeding from a wound on the head, Basdeo drank a poisonous substance
and died in some bushes at the back of the house.
The murder of the elderly Batia which occurred at about 9 am,
plunged the Barrackpore community into mourning where families were
celebrating Mother’s Day. Batia lived in her own house with her son
Basdeo, his wife, and their child sharing accommodation.
Neighbours said yesterday that the mother and son quarreled a lot,
and often times, he used to beat Batia. According to neighbours, Basdeo
chased his elderly mother from the house and she was forced to live with
another son at Jones Street in Barrackpore, a mile away.
Relatives said Batia would often make attempts to reconcile with
her son, but the abuse continued. Police investigators said yesterday
that Batia recently took out a restraining order against Basdeo but he
continued to abuse the woman and was sent to jail for breaching the
Protection Order.
According to a police report, Batia woke up yesterday on Mother’s
Day and her son whom she was living with, Sookdeo Ramsumair, wished her
“Happy Mother’s Day”. Another son, Dass Ragoobar, 49, told Newsday the
family had planned to assemble at Sookdeo’s home with whom their mother
lived, to celebrate Mother’s Day. Dass said, “We had planned to go by
her (a gift) and cook and eat. We just wanted her to relax. We were
going to do everything for her.”
About an hour before the children arrived at the house, Batia took a
taxi and dropped off at Sukhan Trace. She wanted to make a last bid to
mend her broken heart with Basdeo, her second son. Neighbours said they
saw when the woman, dressed in a pink T-shirt, a black skirt and holding
a hand bag, alighted from the taxi. But neighbours told police officers
that as the woman was walking into the yard towards the house where she
once lived, Basdeo emerged and began cursing her.
Neighbours told Newsday that they heard the shouting, but when they
looked out and saw Basdeo cursing his mother, one of them telephoned the
Barrackpore Police Station and reported the matter.
Police officers arrived at the home and saw Batia lying on the
ground, her head smeared with blood. Next to the body were the purse and
two murtis (statue of a Hindu god) that had fallen on the ground during
the commotion.
Police investigators believe that Basdeo struck his mother with a
blunt object several times, because she bled profusely from wounds to
the head.
Police officers went into a bushy area behind the house and
discovered Basdeo’s body. Next to him was a bottle with a brown liquid
which was believed to be lanate.
A police report stated that Basdeo’s wife and child were not at home
when police officers arrived on the scene. The area was cordoned off
by Crime Scene Investigators and caution tape was placed around the
house. ASP Zamsheed Mohammed, Cpls Ramdeen, Ifill and Hosein conducted
investigations.
Villagers lined Sukhan Trace, among them several mothers who wept
for Batia while expressing disbelief over the fate that had befallen the
woman on a day dedicated to all mothers of the world. One woman who
clutched her stomach, her eyes fixated on the body of Batia on the
ground, sobbed, “No mother deserves this. Imagine, on Mother’s Day a
mother get killed by she own son.”
Batia’s children had rushed to the scene, the eldest, Dass cried,
“Why! why! why!, this boy had to kill my mother... why, and on Mother’s
Day. No! No!”
Dass said at the time of the killing, he was busy attending to crops
in his garden, because he wanted to return home in time for the
“get-together for mummy”. Dass added, “I was trying to organise because I
know everyone was coming togther to surprise mummy and have a special
lunch for her. Then, to come home to hear my brother hit the old lady
and kill her. They told me he hit her on her head.” Dass said despite
Basdeo’s threats to kill his mother, Batia never stopped demonstrating
her love for her son.
“But she always loved him no matter what he did to her. She said
that he was and will always be her son. She did not listen to us when we
told her not to go by his house. She insisted she had to go see her son
(Basdeo) today as it was Mother’s Day,” Ragoobar said. Ragoobar said
before Batia left to go visit Basdeo, she said, “Today is Mother’s Day
and Basdeo will have to listen to me.”
Police investigators told Newsday the dispute between the mother and son was over land.
Minister of Community Development Nizam Baskh who lives in
Barrackpore, visited the scene of the crime and comforted the relatives.
He said people are lacking patience and they are opting to settle
issues with violence. Autopsies are to be performed today on the bodies.
Man murders mom, takes his own life
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Minister
of Community Development Nizam Baksh (right) offers condolences
to Ian
Rajkumar and his wife Sumintra at Sukhu Trace, Barrackpore, yesterday
where her mother Batia Ramsumair, 70, was found murdered.
PHOTOS: RISHI
RAGOONATH
|
Published: Monday, May 14, 2012
Reshma Ragoonath
All
Batia Ramsumair wanted for Mother’s Day was to make peace with her
estranged son. Little did she know it would have been her last wish.
Yesterday, Ramsumair, 70, was bludgeoned to death by her son, Basdeo
“Ratty” Ragoobar, 47, at his Sukhu Trace, Barrackpore, home after an
argument over land.
Ragoobar, overcome with guilt after his actions, took his own life
minutes after murdering his mother. Barrackpore police made the gruesome
discovery yesterday after they were called out to investigate a
domestic dispute around 9 am. Neighbours told police they heard noises
coming from Ragoobar’s home and then saw Ramsumair lying on the ground
in a pool of blood.
Only then did they contact the police. Officers found Ramsumair’s body
in the front yard of Ragoobar’s home, which mother and son once shared.
They also found the semi-nude corpse of Ragoobar lying face down in some
bushes about 500 feet from his mother’s body. He reportedly consumed a
poisionous liquid, as a bottle containing a brownish substance was
found nearby.
Police are now searching for Ragoobar’s female relative whom they
believe could assist in piecing together the circumstances surrounding
the murder/suicide. Two Hindu murtis lay overturned near Ramsumair’s
body. Police were up to late yesterday searching for the weapon used to
bludgeon the grandmother.
Yesterday, grieving relatives said they had planned a special surprise
to celebrate Mother’s Day with Ramsumair at her Jones Village, Khanhai
Road, home. However, the woman was insistent on visiting Ragoobar and
spending time with him. They had not spoken in over a year but she
wanted to see him and make peace.
Yesterday, as the undertakers placed Ragoobar’s body next to his
mother’s in a van, his sister Annie, 36, cried out: “Why she had to come
and spend Mother’s Day with he? She wanted to spend Mother’s day with
him. Now she get to spend Mother’s Day with him,” as she was comforted
by her husband Ravi Ramdass.
Relatives said for 18 years Ramsumair and Ragoobar had a violent
relationship which escalated last year when she left her home to live
with one of her son in Jones Village. A protection order was later taken
out against Ragoobar. He was recently released from prison after
serving time for breaching the order.
Ramsumair’s eldest son, Dass Ragoobar, 49, said he warned his mother
about going to his brother’s house. “She said it is Mother’s Day and
she have to talk to him. She said he have to think about his mother. She
insisted. She did not want to listen. If she did only listen. I saw
this on TV so many times and now look how it happen to we,” he sobbed.
Dass held his head in disbelief as he said: “He kill she, he kill
she...she son. All she wanted was to talk to him. It’s Mother’s Day out
of all the days. Mother’s Day he kill she. He was always violent. He
always threatening to kill somebody. I was not here. If I was home I
would not have let her go there.”
He said his mother single-handedly raised her five children after his
father died. “She worked hard. She take dirt in her hands and build that
house (family home.) She worked hard to bring we up.” One of
Ramsumair’s grandchildren said she loved her son too much.
“It is so tragic. It is a mother loving a son and she come to see him
today on Mother’s Day and he kill her. She just love him too much. You
cannot accept that. He was her son. He mean everything to her as all her
children do,” he said. Community Devlopment Minister Nizam Baksh, who
lives a short distance from Ragoobar’s home, visited the scene and
extended his condolences. He lamented the manner in which Ramsumair
died.
“It is discouraging to see what is happened here today. It is Mother’s
Day, a day when we should all be showing love to our mothers, a very
special day and to see an incident like this happening today in a deep
rural community, it means that today people are losing their patience,”
he said. Asst Supt Zamsheed Mohammed, homicide investigators Sgt Peter
Ramdeen, Cpl Ifill, Cpl Hosein, together with Crime Scene Investigators
visited the scene and recorded statements.
Domestic violence is not just a one-time incident, but a pattern of behaviors over time. Most abusive relationships follow a cycle of violence, which has three stages: tension building, explosive incident, and honeymoon stage. The lengths of each stage can vary from seconds to years.